


The Meter And The Rhyme

by pressdbtwnpages



Category: Panic At The Disco
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-01
Updated: 2007-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-16 03:30:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pressdbtwnpages/pseuds/pressdbtwnpages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"I was thinking about piano parts for the new song..."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Meter And The Rhyme

**Author's Note:**

> For the [Nov. 28](http://community.livejournal.com/we_are_cities/10827.html#cutid1) prompt at [](http://community.livejournal.com/we_are_cities/profile)[**we_are_cities**](http://community.livejournal.com/we_are_cities/).

If nothing else, Brendon's tattoo keeps him occupied.

For the first few days, he would catch glimpses of it and get excited and then try to rotate his arm 360° so he could see the mark from every angle.

Then he kind of seemed to forget about it, or at least stopped obsessing about it, for awhile, though he'd grin if he caught someone looking at it, and maybe he sat with his elbows up a little more than he used to.

It's been a few weeks now, and most of the novelty has worn off.

So it takes Ryan a few seconds to figure out what he's doing when he finds Brendon sitting on the couch, tapping his left arm with all four fingers of his right hand.

Ryan sits down. "Bored?"

Brendon glances up, surprised. "Huh?"

"What are you doing?" Ryan asks suspiciously.

"Nothing." Brendon keeps tapping, without looking at what his fingers are doing.

"Are you..." Ryan's eyes narrow. He reaches over and grabs Brendon's left wrist. "Are you playing your arm?"

Brendon barely shrugs. "I was thinking about piano parts for the new song and... it was there?"

"Can I try?" Ryan asks curiously, scooting closer to Brendon.

"Uh-huh."

Ryan releases Brendon's wrist and tentatively runs his fingers up the side of Brendon's arm. Brendon shivers.

Carefully, Ryan places his fingers against the keys. He taps Brendon's arm lightly with his index finger.

Beside him, Brendon inhales sharply.

Ryan lifts his hand. "Hurts still?"

"No, it's okay. Go ahead."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Ryan places his hand back against Brendon's arm. He tries to remember the music from his piano lessons, something, anything, but all he can think of is the very first lesson, where they teach you how to identify the keys and about how the left side of the keyboard has a deeper tone than the right side. They made you play the black keys on the keyboard left to right and hear the higher tone compared to the deep sound you get if you play left to right.

Ryan plays up Brendon's arm. Then he plays down. Then he glances at Brendon. His eyes are shut.

Ryan tries to think of actual music he could play. He tries to think of piano parts for the new song. He taps idly at Brendon's arm.

Brendon chuckles softly. "You aren't actually playing anything at all, are you?"

"I couldn't think of anything," Ryan admits.

"Come here," Brendon requests, opening his eyes and tugging Ryan's arm to him. "Close your eyes."

Ryan obeyed.

"So, I was thinking maybe this, for the new song." Brendon started tapping at his arm.

"Brendon, I can't tell what -"

"Shh," Brendon commands. He resumes tapping.

Ryan concentrates, picking up the beat. He hums along, guessing at the sound Brendon is 'playing'.

"What if we did this?" Ryan opens his eyes and reaches for Brendon's arm again. He modifies the middle of the rhythm Brendon tapped out.

Brendon nods, grabs at Ryan's arm, plays the modified rhythm back. "What if we added..." A new series of taps concludes the piece.

"I like it."

Jon and Spencer find them a few hours later, huddled together, clutching each other's forearms and whispering about melody and meter.


End file.
